The RPS Bargain Bucket: Know The Course

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We’re basically halfway through the year, and the massive Steam Summer sale is looming overhead. Still, there’s some fantastic deals to be had on some great games right now, and if this selection isn’t enough, remember you can always direct your web browser toward the SavyGamer internet website to get clued up as to what are the best deals in gaming across all formats at any time. Here’s your weekly roundup of the best PC download deals around:

Mass Effect – £2.49/$4.99
A big fun time in space. In Mass Effect you’ll spend about a third of your time clicking on baddies to make them die, a third of your time clicking on dialogue options to decide whether you want to be a by-the-books intergalactic hero, or a loose cannon that gets results, and the rest of your time split between wanting to punch whoever at Bioware was responsible for the inventory design and Mako controls. Still possibly my favourite of the Mass Effect games, although it’s also quite slow to get started properly. Easily worth a shot at this price. RPS coverage here.

Condemned: Criminal Origins – £2/€2/$2
A nasty, brutal, game about shambling down corridors you don’t really want to shamble down, armed only with a set of competent first person melee combat controls and a bit of pipe you found. Condemned is full of tension and atmosphere, and guys that want to bash you to death with blunt objects. The actual detective stuff is on the lightweight side, but despite being around 7 years old it’s still a bit of a looker. How come no one has tried to make a similar game to this for a while?

Dragon Age Origins: Ultimate Edition & Dragon Age 2 (PC/Mac) – £6.36/€7.89/$9.99
These are from Amazon US, so you’ll need to have a US billing on your Amazon account to buy them. They’re also available individually discounted.
Both of Bioware’s big games about hitting a dragon with a sword. Here’s wot John thought of the Dragon Age 2’s opening, after thoroughly enjoying the first game:

It’s safe to say that for the first chunk of the game, a good eight hours or more, I’ve not enjoyed it at all. Which astonishes me, after Dragon Age: Origins gripped me from the opening moment and became an all-time favourite straight away. It has felt more like playing the beginnings of a tiresome MMO – just walking between quest markers because it will increase XP, barely interested in the story behind why.

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty & The Void – Pay what you want.
Possibly a bit of a stretch of the term “indie”, indiegala have got a new bundle featuring two games that wikipedia tells me were published by “Eidos Interactive”, who sound a little bit like a major publisher to me, but I’ll let that slide because it’s still a pretty good bundle. You’ll get the aforementioned games for any price, but if you pay $6.24 or more, you also get Commandos 2: Men of Courage, Commandos 3: Destination Berlin, Ion Assault, Air Conflicts: Secret Wars & Cargo: The Quest for Gravity. I’m pretty sure these all register on Steam.

Deal of the weekThe Club – £2/€2/$2
A brilliant shooter, from sadly defunct British wonder-studio, Bizarre Creations. Some bloke called Kieron said this in the RPS Verdict:

The game litters the courses with actual targets which keep your combo bonus up – in practice, on the standard difficulty levels, the real soldiers are as little threat as those things pasted to the walls. So, when you know the course, actually trying to maximise your score works really well. Trying to decide when you should shoot that guard – you end up farming them, realising that if you shoot them immediately, by the time you reach the next bad guy, you’ll have lost your combo… so you wait untli you’re nearer to take the shot.

You probably gave this a miss first time around. For £2? Totally worth a try.

Actually, we never even played the score attack/racing single-player. We just played the split-screen multi-player deathmatch (consoles had 4 player split-screen), which was quite fun in a non-Halo non-COD way.

Yeah if you play Commandos try the first one before you judge the series, don’t just jump to Commandos 3. Even though it has worse graphics the controls are way better. My two favorite games in the bundle are Air Conflicts and Ion Assault though.

Not only do they all register on Steam, each game gets its own unlock code. That stands out to me when other bundles seem to only use two codes, one for all the “pay-what-you-want” games and a second for all the “beat this particular price” games.

Though the only game I already owned was The Void, and it is one of the “pay-what-you-want” games, so there hasn’t been much point in finding someone to give the key to. Less trouble for people to just buy the deal at the minimum to get it.

Can’t agree more regarding Condemned. Absolutely fantastic game, old but gold. Full of tension and terror. The sequel’s pretty brilliant too but inexplicably only available on 360/PS3. Would LOVE a third game.

I enjoyed Condemned for a whilst but I thought it was a missed opportunity for the most part.

The ‘investigation’ aspect of it is a thin layer on top of an FPS bludgeonathon – they give you some forensic stuff purely so they can make it sound like CSI when it’s really just a ‘smash things to death in corridors’ game, for the most part.

It’s quite an enjoyable ‘smash things to death in corridors; game mind – but it’s not Manhunt…

Indeed. I bought Condemned right around the time Condemned 2 came out, and there were plenty of suggestions that it was going to see a PC release, but obviously that has not gone so well. I think there is little chance of it at this point, unless someone decides to reboot the franchise.

Though that may also result from the fact that when someone mentions “new horror games” I think of Amnesia, Condemned, Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 and forth. But Condemned is still so, so, great. I played it on console toys and it was immense. You’re doing yourself a disservice if you like horror games and don’t get it.

I have to disagree here; I played Spess Mareen and found it the most bland, boring experience I’ve had in a while. And that’s as someone who enjoys (parts of) the WH40k fluff/universe. Dull combat, dull characters, dull plot, dull all round.

YMMV obviously. But it’s one of the worst games I’ve played in a while.

Oh why hasn’t there been a decent WH40K game that actually plays like the tabletop game..until then I’m not interested, best game thats been made with that license was Chaos Gate, oh why oh why doesn’t someone do a kickstarter chaos gate like game…probably because GW will jump from a great height yelling odd space marine like phrases with regards to heresy or some such.

I still pop my old Chaos Gate CD into my PC drive every once in a while to see if I can get it to run. It never works. As far as I’m concerned, Chaos Gate is still the only W40K video game to successfully capture the feeling of the original.

On a side note: Advanced Heroquest. When is someone going to make a worthy digital version? I’m going to keep mentioning it in any Games Workshop-related RPS post until someone gets the hint.

Or a KOTR/Mass Effect style game based around the Inquisition. Being a newbie Inquisitor, picking your retinue from those you meet on your travels, choosing how fanatical/moderate to be, how violent blood’n’purging, or soft-stepping, how much you’ll tolerate/utilize the Warp and it’s denizens in the pursuit of your goals, and the conflicts these decisions bring with them both inside and outside the Imperium/Inquisition.

There’s such good 40k potential out there, it saddens me that most of what gets realised turns out to be gung-ho space nazis vs evil aliens.

I have been thinking for a while that a kind of XCOM/roguelike twist on ME using something like the Inquisitor RPG rules would be a fine thing. A lot of procedurally-generated star systems and environments to do turn-based combat in. I was interested to see the XCOM reboot doing the move+action thing that Inquisitor and other WH40K RPG rules did.

Can anyone recommend or give me warnings about gamersgate and GameStop? Just to save me spending too long searching their T&Cs.

For example, do they allow additional downloads etc? Basically, I only buy Steam/Indy right now, as they allow unlimited redownloads. If I’m being limited, I’ll stick to physical distribution to save on the stress. :P

Gamersgate’s the best digital distributor out there that isn’t named “GOG.” Lightweight downloader instead of an intrusive client, excellent and responsive customer service, a huge catalog, good sales, and store credit back with every purchase. I can’t recommend them highly enough.

Gamestop is Gamestop. If you’re from the US, you know them as “those bastards that own every remaining brick and mortar game store,” if not replace the name with your local equivalent and you’ll get the idea.

Those “lightweight” installers get super annoying if you buy a big bundle like a publisher catalog. link to i.imgur.com
(The 1C bundle was *85* individual installers…)

I’m also not a big fan of how they try to DRM all the installer files – encrypting them if you close the install, rather than letting you freely back them up. (Yes, I know it’s possible to get around it, but the point is that I shouldn’t need to do that)

What’s wrong with Indie fort? It’s certainly not the greatest bundle, but I don’t see anything shady or bad about that.
There’s one running right now and it has several semi-interesting games: 3079, Intrusion 2, Aztaka.

As for GamersGate themselves – I don’t think I can say anything bad about them (I own about 50 games there). Prices are good, service is OK (some don’t like their separate installers), support is OK (2-3 days to get a response).

The way the first bundle was handled amounted to a slap in the face to people who bought it – they promised bonuses and when sales reached that level they simply offered nothing and ignored people’s questions for over a week before digging out some long-dead game and offering it almost like they were doing people a favour.

On that basis, I’d not deal with them again – I’d certainly not bother with any bundle they offer – they’ve shown themselves to be fundamentally dishonest in that respect.

If given a choice between the two I would go Gamersgate. You get store credit back and there’s no client required. GameStop used to be Impulse but it was bought by the aforementioned terrible monopolistic game retailer. Honestly I haven’t noticed any real change to their policies or the usual inadequacy of their sales, but they do make you use a client and don’t give you cash back (also I think they charge sales tax), so they are inferior by that alone.

Here the official link link to amazon.com
Note* all of these games are digital download.
Great deals in here, Spec Ops: The Line 25USD, Battlefield 3 36USD , Max payne 30USD, and tons more that I don’t feel like listing :P

ArmA 2 is an incredible game if you like realistic modern military military sims (read: not CoD clone shooters). I know it has gotten a huge surge of interest due to Day Z, but I have been playing it since release and it beats any other current sim on the market IMHO. Like the Battlefield series, you can operate both vehicles and aircraft, but the mechanics are far more realistic. Nothing like stumbling into a major tank battle while attempting to maneuver your T-72 through the narrow Eastern European village roads with infantry swarming all around.

It is a must own if you enjoy these types of games. The learning curve is not as difficult as one may initially think, though you will take some time mapping aircraft controls specific to the setup you are using. Combined Operations includes quite a bit of gear and options, but would also highly recommend the British Forces & Private Military Contractor packs that add several interesting scenarios along with the appropriate vehicles and kit.

I picked up the forthcoming Czech Army DLC for £5.99 thanks to this 25% off.

As for being worth it, I would say it is, definitely. Like many I bought Arma 2 for the Day Z mod. I actually ended up getting Arma X from Amazon as it comes with all the DLC as well as the previous iteration and xpac, it was the same price as Arma 2 + CO and it was never being reduced anywhere.

The game itself is just outstanding and I can’t recommend it enough. Since I bought it, I’ve played Day Z once, the rest of the time enjoying the vanilla game, both single player and multiplayer with the RPS community (and Folk on Sundays), fellows who don’t take things way too seriously, but just enough so that its a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Arma 2 can be a lot of fun, especially when played CO-op. If you do get It I recommend you stop by the Arma RPS sub-forum and checkout our 3 different events. Folk (Sundays) and Tactical Tuesday (Tuesdays) are both Europe based while Americas’ Night is 8PM EST on Thursdays.

Personally I view the Mako as a parody of vehicles chucked into games that aren’t about vehicles. It’s not exactly a problem, it’s just weird. It’s also lots of surreal fun repeatedly tapping the jumpjet key as you sail off the top of a mountain, letting this angular, three-axle pseudotank glide gracefully back to the ground. But the inventory people do badly need to be fired, there’s just no excuse.

EDIT: another thing: while most people will by now already have Deus Ex Human Revolution if they have any interest, I just checked and the previously-exorbitantly expensive Missing Link DLC, which I was avoiding on account of not being made of money, is only £2.50. I can stretch to that much more happily than £7.99.

The Mako was the thing I disliked least about ME1. It went when you told it to go, it stopped when you told it stop, and it shot what you told it to shoot at. Which is more than I can say for the artificially “intelligent” sidekicks.

I think the main reason is that the whole planetary exploration system was very underdeveloped in the first game. They should have improved upon it, especially the physics, instead of completely cutting this aspect of the game out in the sequel. For me, even with its flaws, that still was one of the best ideas behind Mass Effect 1.

I liked the Mako (a hovering tank, whee!), but the levels for it did seem to fall into two sets: drive along this set route or drive to one of 4 generic objectives in an open level. Consequently it did seem a bit too flimsily tacked on.

Because the controls are extremely finicky and squirrely, to the point where I failed a time sensitive Mako driving segment late in the game repeatedly because it would lurch off at a completely different angle under the smallest provocation.

I don’t think there is anything. Impulse is/was pretty good about letting you start your games directly, without having to have the Impulse client active in the background (unlike Steam). So the DRM would just be whatever ME1 itself has, and I don’t think there was anything particularly horrendous there either.

Mass Effect caused a stink prior to release, following the announcement that it would be using a version of SecuROM that had to call home every 10 days. This was soon retracted. Instead, they stuck with a one time activation, which could only be done three times before you had to ring up EA support to get your activations back, with no way to revoke a activation once it was made.

Having a glance around, it looks like the limit has since been increased 10 and a revoke tool has been released. The Steam version has SecruROM removed though.

The same site that sells condemned also has Cryostasis on sale for 2.49E (among a bunch of other games). I always wanted to try that game because the atmosphere and the unique gameplay mechanics and setting seemed interesting, but the rumors about technical issues kinda put me off and just forgot about it. I’d rather get it on steam though…

I have an Amazon UK account, and all I had to do was log in to Amazon.com with the same account, add another address in my address book (a US one this time) and select that during checkout. Nothing else had to be changed…

Not sure why the DotEmu sale isn’t being mentioned. If you haven’t gotten Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines yet buy it now for only $6! They have the best customer service of all the download sites and are completely DRM-free. Each day is having different sales. http://www.dotemu.com

DotEmu seem stuck in a weird situation where GOG get pretty much all the love and support at their expense. They seem like a decent service and I’ve never had any problems with them, but if I didn’t get the occasional regular newsletter I’d forget they even existed, so rarely are they ever mentioned anywhere.

The same happens with BeamDog for me, but that’s understandable to some degree as you’ve got Steam, Gamersgate and so on competing in their corner. DotEmu’s an especially weird case as they’re more or less ‘the other guy’ in a field of two.

Beamdog is also a developer of sorts. It is a crowded field – except for DRM-free (Gamersgate tries to be as DRM-free as possible but since they’re much more mainstream – read as carry new and current games – they can’t really be that specialized).

They aren’t as good at promotion as GOG, absolutely true. However every game you see that they both share is one that DotEmu fixed up to be resold at GOG.